In a competitive global landscape where talent acquisition is paramount, We Are Social, a leading social-first creative agency, has fundamentally transformed its recruitment operations through a strategic partnership with Workable, a prominent applicant tracking system (ATS). This collaboration, now in its fifth year, has enabled the agency to streamline complex international hiring processes, reduce time-to-hire, enhance candidate experience, and establish a unified, data-driven approach to talent acquisition across its multi-continental footprint.
The Global Footprint of a Social-First Creative Powerhouse
We Are Social stands as a formidable force in the global creative industry, distinguished by its "social-first" ethos. With offices spanning multiple continents, the agency boasts an impressive client roster featuring some of the world’s most recognizable brands, including Adidas, Amazon Music, and Lucozade. Its core mission revolves around crafting impactful social content and campaigns at scale, operating deftly at the nexus of culture, creativity, and data. This requires a unique blend of skills and a diverse talent pool, making recruitment a critical strategic imperative.
Employing just over 1,000 professionals worldwide, We Are Social’s hiring needs are exceptionally broad, encompassing roles from content creators and community managers to global heads of research and insights. This vast array of disciplines, coupled with the imperative to access talent across diverse geographic markets, presents significant logistical and strategic challenges for its talent acquisition function. The agency’s ability to consistently attract, assess, and onboard top-tier talent directly impacts its creative output, client satisfaction, and overall competitive standing in the rapidly evolving digital marketing sphere.
The Pre-Workable Era: A Patchwork of Inefficiency
Prior to adopting Workable approximately four and a half years ago, We Are Social’s recruitment ecosystem was characterized by fragmentation and inconsistency. The agency relied heavily on a disparate collection of Google Sheets to manage candidate information, a common challenge for rapidly expanding global organizations without a dedicated recruitment technology infrastructure. Candidate data was often scattered across multiple trackers, managed by different teams, and updated inconsistently, leading to a lack of a single, authoritative source of truth.
This decentralized approach created numerous bottlenecks and inefficiencies. Feedback mechanisms were non-existent or ad-hoc, making it difficult to maintain process consistency across global offices and hiring teams. The absence of a unified platform meant that the overall candidate experience suffered significantly. While some candidates might have navigated a relatively smooth process, many others inevitably "fell through the gaps," experiencing delays, inconsistent communication, and a general lack of transparency. This not only jeopardized the agency’s employer brand but also risked losing promising candidates to competitors offering more streamlined and professional recruitment journeys.
Furthermore, the talent acquisition team operated with limited visibility into its own performance. Without unified data, it was nearly impossible to understand hiring metrics across different markets, identify systemic breakdowns in the process, or make informed, data-driven decisions about where to allocate resources for improvement. A representative from We Are Social candidly articulated the challenges of this period: "The hiring process before Workable was pretty slow. It was very clunky. We were looking for one source of truth, an opportunity to have everything in one place, and an understanding of what that looked like globally." This statement underscores the profound need for a robust, centralized solution capable of standardizing and optimizing global recruitment efforts.
The Strategic Imperative for a Unified ATS
Recognizing these systemic limitations, We Are Social embarked on a search for a comprehensive applicant tracking system. Their requirements extended beyond a mere database; they sought a platform that could:
- Standardize recruitment processes across diverse global markets without stifling necessary local flexibility.
- Be intuitive and user-friendly for hiring managers, ensuring widespread adoption and engagement.
- Provide visibility and measurable insights into the talent acquisition team’s operations.
Workable emerged as the ideal partner, addressing each of these critical needs. Its ability to serve as a single platform for global candidate management, coupled with intelligent automation features designed to minimize manual coordination, offered a compelling solution. Crucially, Workable’s robust reporting capabilities promised to surface previously unavailable data, enabling We Are Social to gain unprecedented insights into its recruitment health. The platform’s structure also supported the agency’s commitment to skills-based hiring, integrating this methodology seamlessly into the workflow without necessitating a complete overhaul of existing operational paradigms.
Transformative Outcomes: A Data-Driven Revolution
The implementation of Workable ushered in a new era of efficiency and consistency for We Are Social’s talent acquisition function. The impact has been quantifiable and far-reaching, touching every critical aspect of the hiring lifecycle.
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Accelerated Time to Hire and Time to Fill: One of the most significant achievements has been the reduction in time to hire and time to fill by an average of 5 to 10 days. In the fast-paced creative industry, where top talent is often courted by multiple agencies, faster offers translate directly into a competitive advantage, reducing the risk of losing prime candidates. This also minimizes vacancy costs, ensuring critical roles are filled more swiftly, thereby maintaining operational momentum and productivity. Industry benchmarks often suggest that every day a position remains open can cost a company hundreds or even thousands of dollars in lost productivity and revenue, making this reduction a substantial financial benefit.
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Elevated Candidate Experience: Workable’s automation capabilities have revolutionized candidate communication. Automated stage-based communications ensure that candidates receive prompt, consistent, and relevant responses at every touchpoint throughout the recruitment pipeline. This fosters a professional, transparent, and engaging candidate experience, significantly bolstering We Are Social’s employer brand and leaving a positive impression, regardless of the hiring outcome. In an era where Glassdoor reviews and online reputation significantly influence talent attraction, a superior candidate experience is an indispensable asset.
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Unprecedented Process Consistency: The transition from fragmented Google Sheets to a single, unified ATS has established Workable as the "one source of truth" for all recruitment data across We Are Social’s global offices and hiring teams. This centralized system eliminates data silos, ensures standardized workflows, and provides a coherent framework for managing candidates from initial application to onboarding. This consistency is vital for a global agency, ensuring fairness, compliance, and efficiency across diverse regulatory and cultural contexts.
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Empowered Skills-Based Hiring: We Are Social’s commitment to skills-based hiring is now robustly supported by Workable’s integrated scorecards within the hiring workflow. This feature ensures structured, evidence-based evaluations for every role and market. By focusing on objective criteria and measurable skills, the agency can make more informed, equitable, and effective hiring decisions, mitigating unconscious bias and ensuring that candidates are assessed purely on their merit and suitability for the role. This approach aligns with modern best practices in talent acquisition, promoting diversity and inclusion.
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Enhanced Hiring Manager Accountability: Workable has significantly improved the efficiency and consistency of hiring managers’ involvement in the recruitment process. Automated feedback notifications and evaluation prompts ensure that hiring managers are proactively engaged and responsive. This reduces the need for recruiters to "chase" feedback, allowing them to focus on strategic talent sourcing and relationship building. Consequently, hiring managers act faster and more consistently, streamlining decision-making and accelerating the overall hiring cycle.
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Robust Reporting and Analytics: The platform provides real-time data on critical metrics such as candidate source, time to hire, and time to fill. This rich dataset offers a clear, panoramic view of the agency’s global recruitment health, identifying areas of strength and pinpointing opportunities for continuous improvement. Such granular insights are invaluable for strategic workforce planning, optimizing recruitment marketing spend, and refining talent acquisition strategies to remain competitive. The ability to track the efficacy of different sourcing channels, for instance, allows We Are Social to allocate resources more effectively, ensuring a higher return on investment for its recruitment efforts.
A Partnership Beyond Product: The Value of Customer Service
Beyond the technical capabilities of the Workable platform, Simon, a key figure in We Are Social’s talent acquisition team, specifically highlights the exceptional customer service as a defining element of the partnership. Operating a lean talent acquisition function across multiple time zones and diverse markets demands responsive and genuinely helpful support. Workable’s support team has consistently met this need, providing timely assistance and expert guidance whenever required. This level of partnership extends the value proposition beyond mere software, establishing a collaborative relationship that is crucial for navigating the complexities of global recruitment. As Simon remarked, "In addition to Workable being a great product, the customer service is definitely one of the key highlights. Super supportive, super helpful, and always on hand when we need them."
Broader Impact and Competitive Advantage
Four and a half years into their Workable partnership, We Are Social now operates a talent acquisition function that is demonstrably faster, more consistent, and more profoundly data-driven than at any prior point in the agency’s history. The strategic migration from antiquated spreadsheets to a unified, intelligent platform has systematically removed structural friction at every stage of the hiring process.
This transformation has far-reaching implications. Hiring managers are now empowered and accountable, operating within a clear and consistent framework. Candidates benefit from a superior, more engaging experience, reinforcing We Are Social’s reputation as an employer of choice. Crucially, the talent acquisition team possesses the necessary visibility to effectively manage a complex global operation and, perhaps most importantly, has access to the actionable data required for continuous improvement and strategic refinement.
For a creative agency like We Are Social, whose very existence and success hinge upon its ability to attract and retain exceptional talent across a myriad of disciplines and geographies, these enhancements are not merely "back-office improvements." They represent a profound and sustained competitive advantage. In a highly fluid and competitive industry where talent is the ultimate differentiator, We Are Social’s investment in Workable has solidified its position to not only compete for but also secure the best creative minds globally, ensuring its continued leadership and innovation in the social-first marketing landscape. The ongoing evolution of recruitment technology, coupled with We Are Social’s strategic adoption, positions the agency for sustained growth and excellence in an ever-demanding market.
